A/N: watch the new jjk ep if you haven't, if you don't know what jjk is, watch it.
There Mana Beast's in every direction, I couldn't tell how many, but it didn't look unmanageable. Then, one of them pounced, and clawed at my back as it let out an animalistic grunt.
But, to the beast's dismay, it's claws couldn't pierce my skin. After all, the only reason the other beast managed to hurt me was cause my Arcane Enhancement's output was low. Since I had increased my output, bottom feeders like these couldn't hurt me.
I then turned around and slammed my fist into the skull of creature that had decided to try and claw at me. When my fist collided with it's skull, it's skull cracked under the force behind my attack.
I slashed at the Mana Beasts, aiming to cut as many as I possibly could with each attack. Although their individual power was low, their numbers were great, and that may have been enough to overwhelm other creatures. By taking turns, they could slowly tire other Mana Beasts out.
But, that wouldn't work for me, Arcane Magic was able to get rid of the fatigue I had accumulated. In other words, so long as I had Mana, I could fight at my best.
I then began to kick some of the hyena like animals into each other. My kicks were strong enough to crush their bones, but they would die instantly. However, kicking them let me use them as projectiles, which was admittedly just the slightest bit fun.
Joy was probably something that would be scarce for me going forward, so, it was best to enjoy myself when possible.
Once I had my fill of using them as projectiles, I decided to start using my sword, making sure not to swing too hard. After all, I didn't know much force was needed to shatter a sword. But I knew that if I didn't use it right, with my current strength, the sword would break.
I cut, I stabbed and I gutted beast after beast. My Enhancement's output remained steady, and so, neither claw nor maw was able to pierce my skin. The level of heat they emited from their jaws was meagre, and as a result it couldn't affect me in the slightest.
However, I made sure not to get big head from how easily I was slaughtering them. After all, there were sure to be apex predators in this environment, and they were sure to be Beasts that had stepped foot into realms that my couldn't self couldn't dream about.
But, my goal was survival. And to survive, I needed to become strong. Strong enough to hunt even the creatures that stood at the top of the food chain.
Once I was certain that I had killed every beast, I decided to take a look at their corpses. I wasn't entirely sure if they were edible, but on the off chance they weren't then I couldn't be sure I could use my Arcane Healing on that.
And even if they were edible, it wasn't like I knew how to start a fire. Unless I were to be presented with a lighter, the chances of me being able to start a fire here were slim to none. And I wasn't going to eat raw meat, who knew if I could heal from whatever otherworldly bacteria lingered on the meat.
Of course, I did consider trying to use their mouths to create a fire. But, even after disecting, them, I couldn't find anything. It just looked like a normal throat, or as normal as the insides or a throat can get.
I then took a seat, leaning my back against a tree.
'I feel like I should be tired, but.. I'm not. I haven't felt tired since I started using Arcane Magic. It's truly a strange feeling.'
As I took a moment to rest, I felt something stab through my chest. It narrowly missed my heart, but it has still pierced through lots of bone and muscle.
'Damn it, I subconsciously lowered my output after the fight. Was it waiting for me to do that?'
I then felt it take out whatever it had thrust into my out, I could feel it destroy even more of me as it exited my body. I then stood up, using the tree as support. I clutched my chest as blood seeped out, then, I began to slowly heal myself. But, before I could actually finish healing, the beast was infront of me. It was tall, standing at around twice my own height. It was like a bear. But, instead of having two front legs, it had two metallic, lance like limbs. The limbs were threaded, making them look similar to a screw.
As I continued to heal, it stabbed through my throat and pinned me to the tree. Then, it went for my legs. Stabbing it's limbs into my knees.
The beast had an overwhelming advantage in strength as I wasn't enhancing myself, in fact, it probably wasn't too far below me even when I did enhance myself. My air ways began to clog up as I drowned in my own blood.
I decided to temporarily give up on regeneration, instead, I put all my strength into Enhancement. And, when I did so, I moved my arms towards the limb that had stabbed my throat and was pinning me to a wall and I began to force it out of my throat.
The beast had been toying with me, and because of that, it wasn't using all of it's strength.
Meaning that, I had caught it off guard, just as it had done to me.
Once I had separated it's limb from my insides, I began to heal as the beast created space between us. The beast didn't seem to have any elemental affinities, it was similar to me in the sense that it relied upon brute strength alone.
Once I had fully healed, I tightened my grip on my sword. This creature wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I would kill it, and move onto the next creature that awaited me.
"Come at me."
As if understanding me, the beast walked towards me. Evidently, it was unable to run on all fours due to its two metallic limbs and honestly, I doubted it could properly stand on two legs.
"I'm gonna pay you back the pain that you inflicted on me, so keep that in mind you oversized bear."